


Princes with Ten Thousand Enemies (And a Hundred Thousand Allies)

by c0nstantines



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gay Zuko (Avatar), Happy Azula (Avatar), Lu Ten (Avatar) Lives, M/M, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Ursa (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Zuko (Avatar)-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25067017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0nstantines/pseuds/c0nstantines
Summary: Lu Ten survives the siege of Ba Sing Se, and it's Iroh who dies. Lu Ten, racked with grief, abandons the siege his father had begun.He goes home to a palace in chaos; Lady Ursa and Princess Azula are gone, Azulon is dead, Ozai is Fire Lord, and little Zuko has a burn on his face.Lu Ten takes his remaining cousin, and makes a run for it.
Relationships: Azula & Ursa (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Lu Ten & Zuko, Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 76
Kudos: 757





	1. Little Soldier Boy

**Author's Note:**

> rip Iroh v.v  
> (+ The title is a Watership Down reference)

Lu Ten sat in his father's provisional office, staring at the unfinished letters and statements. 

His father had a vision for Ba Sing Se. Ever since Lu Ten was a boy, he remembered his father had always wanted to capture the walled city. He had dreamed of flying the Fire Nation flag on the topmost spire of the city's castle.

But now, his father was dead, killed at the siege he had wanted to lay for so long.

The medics had told Lu Ten that his father didn't suffer; it was a quick death. 

They had showed him the weapon that had been used to slay his father. A measly arrow. The great Dragon of the West was killed by a single arrow. 

He had lost his father. Now, he was wondering how many other Fire Nation children had lost their mothers and fathers in the heat of battle? How many mothers and fathers had died by a single arrow?

But, he was no child. He was twenty years old, and he had seen the horrors of war. He had seen the effects of the war that his great grandfather had begun.

His great grandfather was a coward, and he understood that as much as he understood the very war his great grandfather started. It was easier to create war than maintain peace, and the damnable tyrant took the easy way out.

And if it hadn't been for Sozin starting the war, his father, his friends, his fellow soldiers would still be alive. There wouldn't be as many orphans as there were now. 

He thought back to when he was in school, and how, at the beginning of every school year, the students had to write odes and poems to past and present Fire Lord's, starting with none other than Sozin.

He grabbed a blank piece of parchment, and a quill. He hastily sketched a portrait of Sozin.

Lu Ten hated that he looked like his great grandfather. He grabbed the portrait, and set it aflame.

He watched the fire eat away at the parchment, until it was completely gone. 

His anger had subsided. Now, all that was left was a grieving son.

He looked at a picture on his father's desk; it was a picture of him, his father, and his two little cousins, Zuko and Azula.

He stared at his father's smiling face, forever preserved in the form of a photo. A small, sad smile played at his lips.

"See you later, dad. Wherever you are, I hope you rest well."

\- -  
\- -  
\- -

It had been noon when Lu Ten arrived to Caldera. Now, at dusk, he was barely stepping into the castle.

It was quiet, to the point where not even the birds chirped. Lu Ten made sure to make his footsteps quiet; it was a habit at this point. 

The courtyard of the palace was devoid of any visitors or servants. Only a few guards walked around. 

Suddenly, a servant came rushing down the corner. He ran at Lu Ten at full speed.

"Huh--?"

"Prince Lu Ten!" The servant exclaimed, skidding to a stop in front of him, and bowing a bit too low. The servant stood up straight. "Your Majesty, I'm here to fetch you by the orders of Doctor Kyu."

"Doctor Kyu?" Lu Ten asked. Kyu was one of two royal doctors; she was the pediatrician, who served Zuko, Azula, and Lu Ten when he was younger. 

The servant nodded.

"Yes, your majesty. She said it was urgent; it has something to do with your young cousin, Prince Zuko. We tried getting hold of Zuko's father, but he's preparing for his coronation."

Lu Ten was taken aback by the statement. Something to do with Zuko? Ozai's coronation?

"Ozai's coronation? And what's going on with Zuko?"

The servant's face winced, as if he were remembering an awful memory.

"It's. . . It's better if I show you, Prince Lu Ten. May you please follow me?"

Lu Ten nodded, and followed the man as he walked through the courtyard, and into the left wing of the castle.

Once inside the left wing, they walked down a long hallway, which was painted various shades of red. At the end of the hallway was a door, slightly ajar.

The servant opened the door, and motioned for Lu Ten to step inside.

The young prince stepped inside the room, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the tiny bed in the corner of the room. Standing over the bed was Doctor Kyu.

"Doctor Kyu?" Lu Ten called, his voice quiet. Kyu turned to face him, and her aged, pale yellow eyes held a look of pain.

"Prince Lu Ten." She muttered with a smile. "You've arrived on time."

"I was told to come here. Something about Zuko, was it? What happened to my cousin?"

Kyu sighed, and stepped away from the bed.

Laying there was none other than Zuko, young, ten year old Zuko, with a tight bandage over his eye.

Lu Ten's eyes widened, and his breathing turned erratic.

"Calm down, Lu Ten." 

"Zuko-- what happened to Zuko?!"

"He received a burn by unknown cause." Kyu explained, trying to seem calm. "It was rather severe, like whatever burned him had more power than the average flame. We can tell that whatever burned him was in close proximity."

Lu Ten tried to calm himself. Zuko was ok, he told himself. 

The young man had seen far worse injuries on soldiers. But still, Zuko was a child, who had never seen war. He had no reason to have such an injury, especially by something -- a someone, most likely -- that knew what it was doing. 

". . . Is he going to be alright?" Lu Ten asked.

Doctor Kyu looked at Zuko, who was asleep on the futon mattress. There was a bandage over his eye, and the burns peeked out from under the bandage.

"He will survive; we've already successfully treated the infection."

"How long has he been asleep?" 

There was an unspoken question in the original one: "How long did he have that burn?"

"It's been two days. He got the burn the same day Lady Ursa vanished with her daughter, Princess Azula."

Lu Ten's hand coiled into a fist; the pieces of the mental puzzle were coming together. The puzzle's solution pointed to one person and one person alone: Ozai.

It had been a week since his father died, and two days since the death of his grandfather Azulon, the disappearance of Ursa and Azula, and when Zuko got his burns. Lu Ten had barely arrived to the palace, which was quietly in shambles.

"Ozai's coronation is today." Lu Ten muttered. "He'll expect Zuko to be there."

"But he'll be unable to go. He'll be up an about when he wakes up, but it's best we keep him confined to the bed for another three days."

"Very well. I'll stay with him during this time."

Kyu nodded, and looked at Lu Ten.

"I'll be back by the end of the day to check on him. You're free to stay as long as you'd like."

"Thank you." Lu Ten replied.

"Oh, and, Prince Lu Ten. . . I'm sorry about your father."

Lu Ten looked to the ground, then back at Kyu, before nodding.

"Thank you."


	2. Alumina

((CW/TW: mentions of child abuse and PTSD))

Lu Ten sat next to the bed, and carefully handed Zuko some tea.

"Drink, Koko." Lu Ten ordered softly. The young boy sipped some tea, and tried to take the cup from Lu Ten, who noticed that Zuko's hands clamored. Thus, he didn't allow the boy to take the teacup.

He silently withdrew the teacup, and Zuko wiped his mouth.

"Zuko." Lu Ten said quietly. His little cousin looked at him, his unscathed golden eye wide and alert.

"Hm?"

"You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but. . . What do you remember from the day you got your burn?"

Zuko paused, then nodded.

"I. . . I remember a little bit." Zuko mumbled. Lu Ten nodded, and looked to his hands as he fiddled with them.

Zuko looked at his blankets, and sighed.

"And-- I. . . I remember who hurt me." 

Lu Ten looked up. He had a feeling he already knew who it was.

The young prince always had a hunch that Ozai disliked Zuko, but he never had proof. But, he always had the feeling that hurting Zuko was not above Ozai. 

"May you please tell me who hurt you, Zuko?" 

Zuko hesitated, considering it. He was beginning to regret saying what he remembered.

"But. . . But he'll get in trouble. I'll get in trouble." He argued. Lu Ten reached out and grabbed Zuko's hand.

"You won't get in trouble, Zuko. I'll be here to protect you. And, hey, if you don't want to tell me right now, that's ok. It's just. . . Well, Doctor Kyu and I want to know what happened, so we can know how to help you."

Zuko sniffled, and nodded. Lu Ten could see tears in his eyes.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Zuko asked.

". . . I promise."

There was a pause, and the silence took over. Zuko could feel his heart racing, and he could feel the words in his throat. 

"My-- my father." Zuko forced himself to speak the truth. "He. . . He burned me." 

Zuko sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than he was actually telling the truth.

Lu Ten lightly squeezed Zuko's hand. 

The young prince needed a plan. He needed to get Zuko away from Ozai, no matter how risky it was to leave the Fire Nation. He had been absent during Zuko's time of need, but now it was different. Now, Lu Ten could make a change.

"Do you know what he was doing before he hurt you?" Lu Ten asked, his voice quiet and full of concern. Zuko shrugged.

"I think. . . He was chasing my mom and my sister and I." Zuko muttered. "Mom told me and Azula that we had to leave, and we were going to, but-- but father caught us. Mom got scared, and she grabbed our hands and started running away from Father." 

"Do you remember what happened next?"

"Mhm. Father threw fire, and it hit Azula's leg. Mom picked her up to carry her, and father tried to grab mom."

Zuko's expression was blank.

"I think I hit father." Zuko continued, his voice flat and monotone. "He was disoriented for a few seconds, giving me and Mom time to run."

Lu Ten nodded.

"Mom and I started running, and she was carrying Azula. Father got up and chased us again, and he threw more fire. Then, there was this-- this wall of flame separating me and Mom. I told Mom to run, and then. . . Father cornered me, and-- and. . ."

"And that's when Ozai burned you?" Lu Ten asked. Zuko nodded.

Lu Ten kew what he had to do now. There wasn't any time to waste.

A deep anger settled in Lu Ten. It was an anger at himself, and an anger at Ozai. How dare Ozai harm his only children? How dare he try to harm his wife? 

And then, the anger at his own self emerged. Maybe if he had arrived a few days earlier, none of this would've happened.

Ursa's children were innocent, and Ozai had left permanent marks to remind them of what happened when they dared to even follow their mother. 

Lu Ten took a deep breath in through his nose, and then exhaled. Zuko was staring at his hands, unfocused.

"Well, I think you were very brave for helping your mother and sister in the face of danger." Said Lu Ten.

"It was the right thing to do." Zuko responded. 

"Yes, but doing the right thing takes courage, little cousin."

\- -  
\- -  
\- -

Later that night, Lu Ten had come up with a plan.

He was going to accomplish what his aunt Ursa could not: getting Zuko out of Caldera, and hopefully out of the Fire Nation entirely.

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere far away from here."

Zuko held onto Lu Ten's hand, and trudged along in the dark. His cousin held a tiny flame in his free hand, lighting up the way. 

They had snuck out of the palace grounds, and were now wandering the alleyways of the capital; their next challenge was finding a boat, and leaving the Fire Nation all together.

"Why are we leaving?" Zuko asked.

"It's not safe for us here anymore, Koko."

"It wasn't safe for you in Ba Sing Se, but you still stayed and fought."

Lu Ten paused abruptly, staring ahead. His grip on Zuko's hand tightened, as if he were gripping the handle of a sword and not the hand of a human. 

The ten year old boy looked up at his cousin, concerned. The older boy stared into the darkness, and his expression was blank. 

Zuko wasn't educated much on soldiers and how they were affected by war, but he knew his cousin was remembering things. 

And he knew that whatever his cousin was remembering was awful, to the point where even mentioning Ba Sing Se was enough to force Lu Ten's memories of war to the front of his mind.

Zuko always had the sense that Lu Ten didn't want to kill, much less liked it. But, by Fire Nation policy, he had to join the military. Lu Ten had been forced to fight and kill in a war that was older than he was. Because of that, he was remembering things -- ugly things. 

"Lu Ten?" Zuko asked. "Are you ok?"

Lu Ten blinked, and quietly loosened his grip on Zuko's hand. 

"Yeah. I'm fine." Lu Ten said quietly. "Let's. . . Let's go, before someone catches us."

He continued walking, with Zuko trailing behind.


	3. !! Updates + A/N's !!

Wed., Jan 20th, 2021

Hi y'all it's me!!! I'm really really super sorry that I haven't gotten to this   
fic in a long while 😖 i know you guys like this story and trust me when I say that this fic has a special place in my heart too. 

I've been getting back in to the groove of writing and I'm adding things bit by bit to chapter 3, but I feel like I should explain something first (it's nothing bad!! I'm a-ok!!)   
when i write fics, i tend to have the big picture, that i find it difficult to write singular chapters because nothing is perfect enough to truly get what i envisioned. this might just be a case of overachieving, and maybe procrastination, if I'm honest 😔.

plus, when I started this fic, i was super hyper fixated on AtLA, which is why I was able to pump out 2 chapters back to back, but now that my hyperfixation has wavered and I've super focused on other stuff it kinda left this fic in the dust. now this is NO excuse for me to be MIA for so long and I'm sorry !! 😖 i just thought u all needed an explanation as to why I appear, then disappear like *POOF* 

now, the isn't to say I've abandoned this entirely. i will eventually update this once I've got all my plot points for chapter 3 put into a cohesive start -> finish, but if someone wants to make a fic based of my au, you're totally free to do so !! 

see y'all later!!  
\- c0nstantines

**Author's Note:**

> Hi readers! I'm sorry to say this, but I don't really have a particular writing schedule. I just update spontaneously with no set date (I'm sorry v--v), so if I disappear for a month, I'm probably just working on other projects or something. Thank you for reading this!! :)  
> \- Adam


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